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Guitars

During the Us and Them tour (2017-2018) Roger Waters used a
never-seen-before Fender Stratocaster with a black worn-out body,
rosewood fingerbord, and small headstock. This guitar was borrowed from
Gus Seyfert, the guitarist who toured with Roger and had worked on his Is
This The Life We Really Want album. The Gus' Strat was played in Welcome
to the Machine.

The Martin OM-1 GT acoustic guitar (below), which was reported to
be from Roger Waters personal collection, was donated to TECHO-Chile, a
South American based charity organisation, to raise money for
poverty-stricken people. Waters used the guitar to record an exclusive
video of him playing Wish You Were Here. In November 2012, both,
the instrument and the video, went to auction.

The Martin
OM-1 GT Orchestra model is constructed with a polished gloss Sitka
spruce top and bookmatched sapele back and sides.

In the interview for Guitar Heroes magazine (May 1983 issue), David
Gilmour mentioned that Pink Floyd used a Martin D-35 acoustic
guitars in early 1970s, most likely sometime between 1970 and 1975: "At
the beginning we used Levins,
which were quite good guitars, a bit like Martins, made in Sweden or
somewhere, then we moved onto Martin D-35s and things like that and now
we tend to use Ovations mostly for recording and things."

The Martin
D-35 dreadnought model is most recognizable by its three-piece back
and double non parallel seam bracing that Martin introduced as a result
of shortage of Brazilian rosewood in 1965. This allowed them to use up
small pieces of wood that would have been normally considered scrap. The
D-35s are nowadays made of East Indian rosewood (back and sides) with
sitka spruce top, hardwood neck, and ebony bridge and fingerboard.

On the below picture is Roger Waters during recording sessions of the Obscured
by Clouds album (1972), struming a Martin D-35.

Aside from the solid body telecaster SBT-21,
the Mirage Pro
electric acoustic, the J28
acoustic jumbo bodied guitar, and the signature RW300
model, this Washburn WP-80 was another Washburn guitar Roger
Waters used in his solo career. He played it in 1987 during the Radio
KAOS tour on Powers
That Be. (See Guitar section
for more information on Roger's guitars.)

His black Washburn WP-80 is a Gibson Les Paul-style electric guitar
featuring two humbucker pickups, rosewood fingerboard, volume and tone
controls, and four switches (suggesting that this guitar offered a wide
variety of pickup combinations).

Source: RonToon (photo)

David Gilmour says in his interview for Guitar Heroes magazine in 1983
that Pink Floyd used Levin
acoustic guitars during 1968-70: "At the beginning we used Levins,
which were quite good guitars, a bit like Martins, made in Sweden or
somewhere, then we moved onto Martin D-35s and things like that and now
we tend to use Ovations
mostly for recording and things."

The below picture shows Pink
Floyd at KQED TV in April 1970, performing Roger's song Grantchester
Meadows. While Gilmour is playing his Gibson J-45 acoustic
steel-string, Waters is using a nylon-string guitar that may as well be
a Levin Classic 3.

Roger Waters played this natural color jumbo guitar that appeared to be
Washburn J28 during his first year of In the flesh tour (1999).
The next year he replaced it with an Eric Clapton signature models by C.
F. Martin: Bellezza
Nera and the 000-28ECB.

Roger's J28 is (most likely) a SCEDL model (the S stands for solid top,
CE designates this model as a cutaway electric, DL indicates that this
is the deluxe model).

The Washburn J28 SCEDL Cumberland series jumbo body
acoustic-electric guitar features deep cutaway neck access, solid spruce
top and natural finish. Other features also include quilted maple back
and sides and a shaped rosewood bridge. When you need to plug in, you
will use the B-Band tape mic and preamp. The Maple neck has a 20 fret
rosewood fingerboard, and 18:1 gear ratio gold tone Grover tuners on the
rosewood veneered headstock.

At The Wall show in Berlin (1990), Roger Waters played an all
black telecaster-style guitar Washburn SBT-21 on Hey
You. The SBT-21 was a solid body acoustic guitar that Washburn
made in the late 80s. It was designed for the guitarists who required
the playability of an electric guitar but demanded the sound of an
acoustic guitar. The SBT-21 featured slim, rock maple neck with rosewood
fingerboard, mahagony body, and spruce top. The electronics was designed
with a piezo pickup, master volume, master tone, and a midrange "fat"
control to increase the presence of the instrument.

Later on - during In the Flesh tour - Roger switched from his
Torino red Fender
Eric Clapton Stratocaster to a slightly modified black model of the
same guitar that visualy resembles David Gilmour's Black strat - maple
neck with black body, black pickguard, black pickup covers and black
control knobs. See Bray Studios rehearsal (2002) footage or We
Shall Overcome music video (at 04:55) with Roger covering
an old classic.

Along with two Martin acoustic guitars - Bellezza
Nera and the 28ECB,
this Torino red Fender Eric Clapton Stratocaster is another Eric
Clapton signature instrument in the Roger Waters rig. As can be seen on
the below picture (2000), he used this guitar live for The Bravery of
Being Out of Range on In the Flesh tour (1999 - 2002). Later
on he switched to a black model of the same guitar.

Features of Fender
Eric Clapton Stratocaster manufactured between 1988 and 2001 include
an alder body, special soft V-shaped neck, three Fender-Lace
Sensor Gold pickups (s/s/s), and passive and active electronics with
mid-boost (25 db) and TBX (Treble Bass Expander) tone control. Also
included is a vintage bridge with a removable block so it can be changed
to a tremolo-type bridge. The Lace Sensors in the Eric
Clapton signature stratocaster were later replaced with Fender
Vintage Noiseless pickups (2001 - present).

David Gilmour used the Daphne Blue model of Eric Clapton signature strat
occasionally between 1990 and 1991 (see French
and Saunders guitar book sketch), only to found that the mid
range boost circuit was not to his taste.

Like the many other guitar players in the late '70s and early '80s,
Roger Waters used Ovation "hi-tech" acoustic guitars in the studio as
well as for the live performances. Ovation
guitars featured semi-parabolic body made of synthetic
composite material, called Lyrachord, instead of more traditional wood.
Ovations reached the height of their popularity in the '80s, where they
were more often seen on stage than any other acoustic guitars. Their
synthetic bowl, use of preamps, onboard equalization and piezo pickups
were particularly attractive to live acoustic musicians who battled
feedback problems from the high volumes needed in live venues.

David Gilmour and Roger Waters both used Ovations during the Animals
tour (1977) and the live concert performances of The Wall
(1980-81). Roger used his natural wood coloured Ovation Legend 1619-4
for Welcome to the Machine and for Mother respectively. A
few years later he played Ovation Classical 1613 during his first
solo tour The Pros and Cons of Hitch Hiking (1984-85).

Source: Wikipedia, Klaus Hiltscher (photo)

Roger Waters played his black '70s Fender Stratocaster during the
original In the Flesh tour (also known as Animals tour) in
1977. In live versions of both Sheep and Pigs he shared
electric guitar duties with David Gilmour, while backing guitarist Snowy
White played bass. This was the last time Roger performed a major
worldwide tour with the rest of the band.

Source: Klaus Hiltscher (photo)

Roger Waters used his both black and blue sunburst Washburn Mirage Pro
guitars during Radio KAOS tour (1987) for Welcome to the
Machine, Wish you were here, Mother, Final Cut
and If. A few years later he also used the blue one during Wall
Live in Berlin (1990) for Mother, and also Andy Fairwater Low
played it during In the Flesh tour (2000) in Each Small Candle.

The Mirage Series was introduced by Washburn
in 1984 as the original acoustic/electric solidbody line of guitars. It
had mahagony body and neck, rosewood fingerboard with pearl dot inlay
and matching headstock with three-per-side chrome diecast tuners. It
also featured active electronics with piezo pickup in bridge, an exposed
humbucker below the soundhole, EQ section with three knobs (Equalizer,
Middle, Gain), and two knobs (Volume, Tone) and a three-way switch on
the front of the guitar for separate controls.

Source: Washburn

Aside from his Eric
Clapton signature model Bellezza Nera, Roger Waters used the Godin
Multiac Spectrum SA steel string guitar during The Wall Live
tour (2010 - 2012). As Roger said "I love this guitar. I use it live on Hey
You." Unfortunately, this song is entirely played behind the wall so
we cannot see him actualy playing it. Hey You is notable for
using a high strung "Nashville" tuning so perhaps this is how Roger's
Godin is tuned.

He also uses the nylon string Godin
Multiac ACS-SA on Good Bye Blue Sky. The natural
high-gloss version of this guitar can be seen in the hands of G. E.
Smith and David Kilminster when performing Is There Anybody Out There.

Godin Multiac Spectrum SA features a mahogany body design, ebony
fingerboard, Seymour Duncan Lipstick pickup in the neck, custom Godin
electronics along with separate tone and volume controls for the
Lipstick pickup, as well as 13-pin capabilities for computer & synth
access. Roger's guitar has a Black High-Gloss color.

Godin Multiac ACS-SA features a chambered maple body, cedar top,
mahogany neck, and ebony fingerboard. The engine includes individual
transducer saddles powered by a customized preamp system from the RMC
Pickup Company. This system produces a hexaphonic output through a
13-pin connector enabling direct access to Roland GR-Series guitar
synthesizers.

Source: Godin Guitars

Roger Waters used this guitar during the Dark Side of the Moon Live
tour (2006 - 2008) and during The WallLive tour (2010 -
2012). He has two of these.

C. F. Martin 000-ECHF Bellezza Nera was developed jointly by Eric
Clapton and a Japanese trendsetter Hiroshi Fujiwara. At Eric Clapton's
suggestion, the model is named in Italian - "Bellezza" meaning beautiful
and "Nera" meaning black.

This Limited Edition guitar has black body, neck and headplate, and
matching African black ebony fingerboard and bridge, and the specially
made sterling silver-plated Schaller tuners with sterling silver-plated
buttons. The fingerboard features Martin's Style 45 snowflake inlays,
with "Bellezza Nera" inlaid in script above the last fret in mother of
pearl. This guitar comes without a pickguard.

The body top is Italian alpine spruce, the back and sides are crafted
from East Indian rosewood. Carved from solid mahogany, the neck features
Martin's diamond volute at the base of the headstock.

Source: C. F. Martin

First used during the In the Flesh tour (2000). Guitar could also
be seen when Roger Waters & David Gilmour were together on stage for
Palestinian Charity "Hoping Foundation" at Kiddington Hall, England
(July 10th 2010).

The Martin 000-28ECB Eric Clapton Signature Edition has been
limited to no more than 500 instruments. The 000-28ECB has the shorter
24.9" scale length and the smaller "000" body size that Clapton prefers.
The sides and back are constructed from solid Brazilian rosewood, and
the top is bookmatched from Sitka spruce.

The rosette is embellished with inlaid herringbone pearl, and the body
is bound with grained ivoroid. Eric Clapton’s signature is inlaid
between the 19th and 20th frets. Each 000-28ECB bears an interior label,
individually numbered and personally signed by Eric Clapton and Martin
Chairman and CEO C. F. Martin IV.

Source: C. F. Martin

Roger had been playing the sunburst Washburn RR300 during the
first two year (1999-2000) of his In the Flesh tour. Washburn
approached him about a Signature Limited Edition and this led to a black RW300
used during 2002 part of the same tour.

The RW300 brings together a Seymour Duncan P90 style pickup and a
Fishman preamp with a piezo bridge. These pickups, in combination with
the chambered mahogany body and solid spruce top, reduce the chance of
feedback and give the guitar a vibrant acoustic tone.